The Loyalty Bug is because of my attempts to create civilian factions with different loyalties using a kludge mentioned in an old post. A new CivGroupNames.XML is included in the Arulco Vacations v1.08 Update 19-June-2017 .

The snitch midnight info lets you know who doesn't get along with who. There are morale penalties for those who are not happy with who they are working with -- this is the same as vanilla except everyone now has a full set of opinions instead of just a few.

The snitch not stopping bad behaviour is a code problem that AFAIK nobody has looked into.

Manuel is around Chitzena at a certain game progress level (I don't recall at the moment at what progress level he appears).

Is the snitch info thing just a morale thing or also affect (re)hiring?

A morale thing, mostly. If a Merc won't work with another Merc (or will kill another Merc) they will express that themselves in some way. All of those extreme cases are the same as in vanilla, and there are voice files for each situation.

one more thing I found, the m26 adrian helmet (at least the one Gaston is wearing) counts as pants. I like the Apocalypse Now reference to use a helmet so you don't get your balls blown off but it seems a bit unwieldy. At least the AP malus should be significantly raised imo.

I'm playing this mod since the last weekend nonstop and I found two things I'm not sure if they are a bug or a feature or if it's a fault on my side. I have Arulco Vacations mod from the official page in the 1.8 version I guess.

1) Father Walker doesn't show up. It's day 11 and I checked the church and both bars several times a day regular and with reveal-all-cheat. I also made a new game completely in cheat mode and he wasn't in the church available for the first 4 days, too.

2) In both tries (regular and the Father-Walker-Search-Cheat) Bobby Ray's wasn't unlocked. I cleared Omerta, Drassen (99% Loyalty) and the SAM-Site D15. Days were #11 and #4.

He can be recalcitrant. In one test-run I had given up on him and started a guerilla strategy before he finally showed. In others he appeared immediately -- but in most ( and I play a lot of the early game in my tests) he takes a few frustrating days. One strategy is to vacate the sectors and re-enter one. If he's not there keep someone in that sector while exploring the other. Every time you enter the vacant sectors he has a chance to appear. If you stay in both sectors he won't appear. I might be slightly off on the interpretation of the code (and hope someone will correct me), but it's basically like that. I don't think I've anything that would affect his appearance.

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2) In both tries (regular and the Father-Walker-Search-Cheat) Bobby Ray's wasn't unlocked.

That's strange. That shouldn't happen. Bobby Ray's should unlock once the airport is taken. You did remember to click on the advertisement on the A.I.M. site? My playtester forgot to do that once, which is why I ask. I also forgot to do that once. I'll look into it.

EDIT: On Father Walker I did do something to stall him. In 1.13 he has a 50% chance of showing up when you enter the sectors, while in AV he has a 33% chance.

Thanks for your fast answer. I actually forgot to click the link. I'm sorry about that, it's been a while since I played the game but your awesome mod brought me back. I'll keep an eye on Father Walker and report back.

Oh my! Oops! It seems that somewhere along the way I disappeared Manuel by mistake! I've corrected the problem with this map sector download. Simply unzip this archive into your main game folder. It should overwrite 2 files, one in MAPS and one in RADARMAPS. Manuel will be in this sector.

EDIT: Damn. Ignore the above. I thought I corrected the problem. Back to the drawing board.

That was intentional. I was trying out the alternative in my playtests, and forgot to set it back. While I like the change in game play it creates, it is something I think should be left to the druthers of the person playing the game because it is a drastic change.

Right off the bat with 1.09. Opening battle in Omerta begins before any mercs have landed, resulting the helicopter sound never ending, us never dropping from it, and the battle autoresolving. This makes A9 inaccessible, as you have no control, as though you were exiting the helicopter, but this never ends.

On second thought, IIRC this has always been something that happens sometimes. Leaving the bug report as is.

[Updated on: Wed, 20 September 2017 03:56]

I have no Wife, Children, or real Job. This also means I have 24 hours a day and 7 days a week to think of a rebuttal. You have been warned.

"I got another problem: I am being overrun by Dinosaur Nazis on Hoverboards!" -Ravenhugger

"Before you judge a man, walk a mile in his shoes. After that who cares? He's a mile away - and you've got his shoes!" - Unknown Criminal

Right off the bat with 1.09. Opening battle in Omerta begins before any mercs have landed, resulting the helicopter sound never ending, us never dropping from it, and the battle autoresolving. This makes A9 inaccessible, as you have no control, as though you were exiting the helicopter, but this never ends.

On second thought, IIRC this has always been something that happens sometimes. Leaving the bug report as is.

That does happen occasionally. It also happens every time if you hit the ESC key before the sector loads. I have no control over that.

Right off the bat with 1.09. Opening battle in Omerta begins before any mercs have landed, resulting the helicopter sound never ending, us never dropping from it, and the battle autoresolving. This makes A9 inaccessible, as you have no control, as though you were exiting the helicopter, but this never ends.

It happens because enemy and militia see each other before the first merc arrives at the sector.
The solution is to quickly press ESC when sector is loaded.

Well, found a legitimate bug. Right after the first battle, picked up a Winchester Model 1915 Service Rifle. Tried to attach a rifle sling, disappeared, tried again, also gone. The gun is eating the slings.

[Updated on: Wed, 20 September 2017 05:23]

I have no Wife, Children, or real Job. This also means I have 24 hours a day and 7 days a week to think of a rebuttal. You have been warned.

"I got another problem: I am being overrun by Dinosaur Nazis on Hoverboards!" -Ravenhugger

"Before you judge a man, walk a mile in his shoes. After that who cares? He's a mile away - and you've got his shoes!" - Unknown Criminal

Well, found a legitimate bug. Right after the first battle, picked up a Winchester Model 1915 Service Rifle. Tried to attach a rifle sling, disappeared, tried again, also gone. The gun is eating the slings.

I thought I had gotten all of them. That happens because when a weapon is placed in the sector the Map Editor saves ALL the information about that weapon, including attachments, on the map. When that weapon is subsequently modified, as this rifle was to allow a rifle sling to be attached, the game sees that a rifle sling is allowed on that weapon but the information saved on the map indicates the rifle sling is not a valid attachment. At least, that is what I've figured out without knowing the code. I have gone through the maps to update them but i must have missed that weapon -- which I gave to one of the militia in A9. As it's not a game breaker the fix will be in the next update - whenever that is. Sorry about that, chief.

Hey great mod, am enjoying it, however, I seem to be losing items when I move my gear from one sector to the next, this has happened twice with gear from the Drassen airport.

Usually I try to move the gear to the Mine in Drassen and I get the a little dialog message in red that says that the items can't be moved and I should go to the sector to correct it, which I do. And the items are all still in the Airport sector. Let some time by and it tells the move is complete, but then several of the items are now missing. I do militia inspections in both sectors and still gear is not to be found.

This also happened in San Mona where I meticulously looted everything from the Cabinets from Ray's gun shop. Then I tried to move it to Bobby Ray's sector and then the guns disappeared. I do believe the same dialog message in red did pop up to tell me to zoom into that sector. No militia in San Mona so that wasn't the issue.

Also when selling guns to Tony he doesn't give me any cash. He will exchange guns for goods no problem, but no cash. Did check to see if it was getting automatically deposited into my account, but that wasn't happening either.

I am playing the latest Sept 2017 version of your mod. Everything seems to be working okay.

I've been trying to figure out what is wrong with Tony (and 1 report of Betty) not giving cash for items. So far I've not been able to fix it through XML changes/reversions.

The missing items while using the Move Item command is a strange one, though I seem to recall that command being reported as troublesome in v1.13 also -- though I may be wrong (it's very difficult to search for previous comments on this forum). I would think whatever is happening must be code-related to the Move Item command. Maybe Flugente or Sevenfm have some insight on this issue.

With regards to moving items I know little of coding but could it be some sector specific issue? At the same time I moved items from the Drassen Airport and from the Eastern sector in San Mona, I moved items from other sectors in those towns without incident.

I wiped out Kingpin's cronies in his home sector, but when I've gone back to the sector there's no guys to kill. Not that I'm complaining as they have good loot on them, but am not sure if that's intentional. Maybe that could be a potential loot mining situation? I also notice the rebel/milita guys in the starting Omerta sector also respawned when I revisited that sector too.

I am enjoying the accelerated weapon start, I know most of us JA2 fans are gun fans, but man there are a lot of rifles, like a lot.

With regards to moving items I know little of coding but could it be some sector specific issue?

I have no clue, and will have to check Sevenfm's fix list to see if he ported Flugente's fix yet.

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I wiped out Kingpin's cronies in his home sector, but when I've gone back to the sector there's no guys to kill. Not that I'm complaining as they have good loot on them, but am not sure if that's intentional.

I'm not sure what you mean here. Do you mean they re-spawned, or not? Either way it's not intentional -- I just went with what the game gives.

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I also notice the rebel/milita guys in the starting Omerta sector also respawned when I revisited that sector too.

The game re-spawns them. I just went with what the game gave me here. The Rebels were never intended to be above-ground in the Vanilla game, so my putting them above-ground in various sectors such as Omerta, the Rebel Scouting Camp, Middle Drassen, etc., was something not anticipated by the code. However, evidently it intended to re-spawn them in the Rebel Hideout if they were killed, so it can be rationalized by what Miguel tells you about having people in the countryside supporting his cause -- so figure he recruits more as some die. They all get the same gear as the originals, however, but since their gear is nothing special I figure we can live with it and it is not much of an exploit.

I'm glad you like the 'lock and load' beginning -- it was the first impetus for me to create this mod as I really did not like the idea of trying to take over a country with a pistol and 2 magazines. It just did not sit right with me, especially since many of the Mercs have prior battle experience. It is also why the mod is called a "vacation".

Father Walker is missing in Drassen . it is bug ? or in 1.09v he is in another place?

He has a 50% chance of appearing in one or the other sector, as usual. However, he is still being recalcitrant so I may make it a higher percentage in the first update for v1.09 (I think i have fixed the problem with tony not giving money for goods -- testing it now).

Good day . i find one bug . i was defending Airport of Drassen . the enemy entered the sector from the side of farm. number of first wave of attack was 15 solders . My radio was turned on, but somehow the enemy call reinforcements from the farms. the problem is that - reinforcements were not visible, till one moment, when i switch on strategic map and come back . the enemy was very close to my mercs. like they was in sector from the begging.
P.S. I made a video about this bug on youtube . name of the video - Arulco Vacations. Bug with enemy location

My radio was turned on, but somehow the enemy call reinforcements from the farms. the problem is that - reinforcements were not visible, till one moment, when i switch on strategic map and come back . the enemy was very close to my mercs. like they was in sector from the begging.

There was a fix for enemy reinforcements appearing as if they had been in the sector from the beginning but the circumstances of the situation the fix was for was not this particular situation -- so maybe it needs to be looked at again. What executable are you using? That is an important bit of info.

Father Walker is missing in Drassen . it is bug ? or in 1.09v he is in another place?

He has a 50% chance of appearing in one or the other sector, as usual. However, he is still being recalcitrant so I may make it a higher percentage in the first update for v1.09 (I think i have fixed the problem with tony not giving money for goods -- testing it now).

I've checked and I did indeed revert the Father Walker appearance control to the original script commands (Vanilla & v1.13 & AV are exactly the same) -- so I don't know why he's not appearing. In the current campaign I'm running he hasn't yet appeared on Day 24!

Well. Right after I posted that about Father Walker's script I had an idea. I went into the Map Editor and deleted Father Walker from both sectors, and then put him back in both sectors. I went into my campaign and -- voila! -- he was there! Why? I don't know. But I will include the new maps with this weekend's update. If you can't wait you can download them here. The *.dat files go in ../Data-AV/MAPS and the *.sti files go in ../Data-AV/RADARMAPS

Since we're on the subject of reinforcements, I noticed something with reinforcements when invading town sectors. After I clear a town I start to go through the various containers but then one - three enemies will then attack from one of the neighboring districts. I'll kill them off and continue looting, then it'll happen again another one - three enemies will attack, and this will go on until the neighboring sectors only have 3 troops left, which certainly makes for an easy attack, but probably too easy.

v1.09 Update 1 is available from the Downloads page of the Arulco Vacations blog. This update fixes the problem of Father Walker not appearing in Drassen, and it also fixes the problem of Merchants (Tony and others) not giving money for items sold to them. It also fixes an issue with the small faces of a couple of new I.M.P. portraits, adds another Loadscreen, tweaks several maps, merchant inventories, starting gear kits (M.E.R.C. mercenaries get a new uniform, and fixed a couple issues with other kits), adds cocaine to Kingpin's 'business' (available to buy from Frank), and a few other minor tweaks here and there. This Update 1 is NOT included in the Complete Download or the Update Package download yet. This Update 1 is 3.15MB in size and IS savegame compatible.

M1 garand has the sling eating and bipod eating hunger -when trying to attach those items, they simply disappear.

Also the flashbang pouch does not attach to molle as may have been noted prior.

Seem to be getting attacked in every sector at a pretty high frequency, playing on experienced. Ratio of fights can be as high as 8 to 16ish enemies vs my 4-8 mercs, enemy accuracy seems overly high, their ability to hide or dis-appear into camo stealth is unusually quirky (now you see em, now you don't). Getting shot through sandbags (rice paper like thin) by spray and pray accurate enemy, gang banged by overwhelming #'s of enemy that seem to be on crack with high action points... Makes me wonder how much I have to adjust my play or just start cheating to compensate for enemy imbalance?

Edit after finding this post-

SmokinGun wrote on Fri, 20 October 2017 23:52

Love the idea of building sandbag fortifications...

however one too many times my prone mercs, taking cover behind sandbag wall, get swiss cheesed to death with one burst by a spray and pray attacker as if the sandbags were made of rice paper. Not sure if this is a "feature" or bug, but it seems to defeat the purpose of using sand bags at all if the enemy can shoot clear through them.

My mercs are in Estoni just outside Jake's House and interrupting, shooting enemies that come into the fenced-in junkyard. The problem is that enemies outside the fence are shooting my mercs through the fence almost every round. The enemies are even shooting them through the walls of Jake's house when my mercs hide inside with the door closed! (My mercs can't see the enemies outside the fencing that are shooting them almost every round.) The enemies are even shooting my mercs through 2-3 walls--the outside wall to Jake's house and the inside bathroom wall! It's amazing!

7609 w/ja2_7609en+AI_r513.exe

1. Please try r520, it should fix the shooting through walls problem.
2. Please post Ja2+AI related bugs/reports in this thread to avoid mixing them with official version.

M1 garand has the sling eating and bipod eating hunger -when trying to attach those items, they simply disappear.

I know. It has been very frustrating trying to find the reason for this. It will happen with a couple of other weapons also -- but with all of them it is only some of the individual weapons that display this behaviour. For example, if you purchase the weapon from a merchant or Bobby Ray then the weapon will take the sling and bipod. But if it is an enemy drop or map placement then there is a chance the weapon will eat the sling/bipod. I'm thinking now that it has something to do with the map editor. The weapons that display this behaviour do not have those attachments in vanilla or 1.13, and even though I've removed Items.XML & Attachments.XML from the vanilla and 1.13 directories the problem still exists -- so it isn't reading those files.

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Also the flashbang pouch does not attach to molle as may have been noted prior.

It has to be attached in Tactical. I have no control over that.

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Seem to be getting attacked in every sector at a pretty high frequency, playing on experienced. Ratio of fights can be as high as 8 to 16ish enemies vs my 4-8 mercs, enemy accuracy seems overly high, their ability to hide or dis-appear into camo stealth is unusually quirky (now you see em, now you don't). Getting shot through sandbags (rice paper like thin) by spray and pray accurate enemy, gang banged by overwhelming #'s of enemy that seem to be on crack with high action points... Makes me wonder how much I have to adjust my play or just start cheating to compensate for enemy imbalance?

A couple issues here. Sandbags and walls and roofs are frustratingly porous even though I have increased their solidness from vanilla and 1.13. I hesitate to increase it further because it will make it even harder to see the enemies -- which is another issue you mention. The ability to hide is a double-edged sword -- you can do it to them also. I frequently have enemies running up to point-blank range because they can't see me. The END & DELETE keys are essential to accurately visualize cover because what we see on the screen can be deceptive. That said, I have indeed increased the amount of cover on most maps, and the AI is very adept at using it effectively (thanks to Sevenfm's AI tweaks). AV combat is a bit different from other JA2 mods, and needs a different tactical approach. When you find that tactical sweet spot you will also find that it is quite easy to win most battles without serious injury. I just played a half-campaign with Pops, Moses, Sam, Leon, Biggins, Bernie, Ira, Hamous & 1 IMP using mostly bolt-action rifles and was so successful (even defeating a 72 enemy Drassen counter-attack -- with the help of two dozen or so land mines) that it actually became boring, and I thought I might have made things too easy. Of course, those guys did not move around much -- and in my current campaign with a more mobile force I am finding it much more difficult whenever they move a lot in combat.

Enemies that seem to have a lot of APs . . . I think it is more a case that the enemy is not burdened by a lot of equipment, as is usually the case with my Mercs. I don't know if that is the same with you. I have taken to lightening my loadouts considerably, and that seems to help. The AI has no advantage over your Mercs via any tweaked XML. However, all enemies have skill traits, and if they have Athletics as a skill they will be able to move quite far (as can your Mercs with that skill).

Numbers of enemies -- there are more enemy patrols with more soldiers in each patrol than in vanilla or 1.13. That is intentional to balance the fact that I made retreating much less of a morale loss, and even made it possible to retreat with a morale bonus if you do heavy damage or kill a few enemies. In many aspects of AV things are more difficult in one way and easier in another way.

All that said, the combat model I am modding for won't be to everyone's liking. However, with every Player comment I re-evaluate what I have done and where I am heading, so I definitely will look at every issue you have brought up.

A couple issues here. Sandbags and walls and roofs are frustratingly porous even though I have increased their solidness from vanilla and 1.13. I hesitate to increase it further because it will make it even harder to see the enemies -- which is another issue you mention. The ability to hide is a double-edged sword -- you can do it to them also. I frequently have enemies running up to point-blank range because they can't see me.

Enemies that seem to have a lot of APs . . . I think it is more a case that the enemy is not burdened by a lot of equipment, as is usually the case with my Mercs. I don't know if that is the same with you. I have taken to lightening my loadouts considerably, and that seems to help. The AI has no advantage over your Mercs via any tweaked XML. However, all enemies have skill traits, and if they have Athletics as a skill they will be able to move quite far (as can your Mercs with that skill).

Numbers of enemies -- there are more enemy patrols with more soldiers in each patrol than in vanilla or 1.13. That is intentional to balance the fact that I made retreating much less of a morale loss, and even made it possible to retreat with a morale bonus if you do heavy damage or kill a few enemies. In many aspects of AV things are more difficult in one way and easier in another way.

Thanks for explaining. Yes sandbags sometimes provide excellent cover and add to tactical gameplay...and other times are really inconsistent as they seem to not even exist and provide zero cover resulting in frustrating wtf moments.

Camo effects working definitely add to the tension and enemies "disappearing", at times it does feel excessive. Having a spotter AND mercs covering multiple viewpoints (fields of fire) helps in tracking enemies playing hide and seek. I'll begin testing my own mercs using fire and maneuver to see if they can disappear as well as the enemy. Good to know the AI has no advantage and kudos to the AI behavior...they are quite unpredictable and canny (yup I'm save scumming a lot as the majority of hits result in KIA mercs vs. the majority of hits being wounds).

I hadn't factored in the AP's of enemies based on their lighter carry weight, makes perfect sense, they sure are fast and can cover lots of ground quickly, especially with superior numbers.

Enemy patrols are intense, there are many in frequency and numbers making me wonder how I'll be able to guard multiple locations and advance with limited resources, time will tell.

*Big Favor- Is there a way to keep my mercs in a prone or crouched position when re-entering a sector map? I vaguely recall seeing an INI setting for that but could not track it down. Way too many times I leave the tactical map and return when its getting attacked to find my mercs have left their crouched or prone position behind cover and are STANDING upright just begging to be shot by a close spawning enemy. It would be a nice feature to keep them in cover (ambush) and not acting like Lance after dropping acid in Apocalypse Now- Standing like gomer pyle on acid while enemies "bear down" ;)